gHacks technology news » processes

Batch Kill Processes With Auto Kill Any Process

Martin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:40:12 +0000

Auto Kill Any Process has been designed to batch kill running processes in Windows. Why would someone want to do that? There are actually a few reasons where this functionality might come in handy. Think about launching programs that benefit from every additional Megabyte of computer memory and cpu power. Some gamers for instance like to disable and kill as many processes before they start their gaming sessions. It might also come in handy to kill startup processes if they cannot be removed (for whatever reason).

The software program works with a so called hitlist that is configured in the program’s settings. The hitlist basically contains names of processes that the user wants to include in the kill command. New processes can be added from the list of running processes that are displayed in an extra tab in the program or by entering the name of the process manually in a comma separated list in the interface or the hitlist.txt file directly.

All it takes to kill all processes that are listed in the hit list is to double-click the program icon of Auto Kill Any Process. This is a manual process and users who want to automate it need to use different applications like Kill Process (see: Batch Kill Processes with Kill Process) or Process Lasso (see: Process Lasso a Process Manager).

The configuration can be changed at anytime by launching the settings shortcut of the program. Auto Kill Any Process requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0. It should be compatible with most versions of Microsoft Windows and was tested on a system running Windows XP SP3. The download is available at the developer’s website.

Tags: batch kill processes, kill processes, process, processes, windows software

Get to know Linux: ps command

Jack Wallen — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:04:35 +0000

Over the years there have been certain commands that have really helped me out of a bind. One of those commands is the ps command. The ps stands for process status and it tells you, as you would expect, the status of a process. This is a fast way to know if an application or command is running on a Linux system. Oh sure you could fire up a swell GUI for the same purpose, but that GUI does you no good if you are working on a headless server installation or working on a remote machine. In those instances the ps command is your best bet for helping to manage processes.

You will be glad to know that the ps command will most certainly be already installed on your Linux machine, so there is no need to worry about installation.

Command structure

The basic command structure for ps is:

ps OPTION

Of course every good Linux command offers a lot of options, and ps is no exception. For this command we will just outline the best groupings of options together instead of just listing all of (or the best) options. This way you can skip right down to the command you need to use.

Show list of processes owned by a specific user

Say I want to list all processes owned by user jlwallen. To do this I could enter one of two commands:

ps ux

This will list out all processes that are owned by the user issuing the command. The results for this command will look like:

USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND jlwallen 560 0.0 0.3 18312 7376 ? SNs 19:40 0:00 /etc/alternativ jlwallen 561 0.0 0.1 7316 3932 pts/0 SNs 19:40 0:00 bash jlwallen 1137 0.0 0.0 1644 416 ? S 19:47 0:00 sleep 8 jlwallen 1141 0.0 0.0 1644 420 ? S 19:47 0:00 sleep 8 jlwallen 1142 0.0 0.0 4384 1012 pts/0 RN+ 19:48 0:00 ps ux

You can also get a similar listing with the command:

ps U jlwallen

The results of this command will be:

PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND 560 ? SNs 0:00 /etc/alternatives/x-terminal-emulator 561 pts/0 SNs 0:00 bash 1223 ? S 0:00 sleep 8 1227 ? S 0:00 sleep 8 1228 pts/0 RN+ 0:00 ps U jlwallen

Show all processes

To see every process on your system you would enter the command:

ps aux

The results of this command would look similar to that of ps ux only it would show the process of every user as well as the system.

List the details of a single process

What about when you want to see the details of only a single process? Imagine issuing the command ps ux and having to search through all of the listings to find the information about the one process you are trying to gain information about. Say, for example, you need to find the PID (Process ID) of the currently running daemon for Dansguardian. You can use the ps command and pipe the results to the grep command to search the listing for a specific string and print out only the matching strings. To do this issue the command:

ps aux | grep dansguardian

which will print out something like:

113 2596 0.0 0.5 17852 11460 ? Ss 06:49 0:00 /usr/sbin/dansguardian

Now you can see the PID of Dansguardian is 2596. You can kill this with the kill 2956 command.

Final thoughts

There are many more uses for the ps command as well as many more ways to use the ps command. The above three examples are the most often used, but don’t think you are limited to only those uses. Issue the command man ps and you will see a full listing of all the ps options available to you.

Tags: process status, processes, ps

Windows Task Manager Replacement DTaskManager

Martin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:43:58 +0000

DTaskManager is a lightweight replacement for the default Windows Task Manager. It can be used side by side with the Windows Task Manager or replace it fully. If the second option is selected it will be launched when the user is opening the task manager the usual way. The program uses a similar layout as the Windows Task Manager but provides access to additional information and functions in its various tabs.

The five default tabs that are available in the Windows Task Manager are offered by DTaskManager plus the two additional Ports and Kernel Modules section. The program displays extensive information in each section of its interface, something that can only be partially achieved in the Windows Task Manager. The processes tab lists for example the path of the process and the cpu time by default.

The Ports section displays all network connections of the local computer system offering massive amounts of information that include the process name, local IP and port, remote IP and port, the protocol, path and socket status.

DTaskManager offers some advanced functions on how to deal with processes. It can for example kill processes the usual way, force the process to be closed and initiate an override to close the process which will bypass permissions as well. Another interesting feature is the ability to suspend tasks. This is a feature known from the Linux operating system which can temporarily halt tasks. That’s a handy feature in situations where all system resources are needed by a process as the user can suspend processes and resume them once the resources are not needed anymore for the priority process.

A few minor options are the ability to display the cpu and memory usage in the system tray. This can be displayed as a bar or as numerical values. DTaskManager is a solid and lightweight Windows Task Manager replacement. It is compatible with Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Tags: dtaskmanager, microsoft-windows, processes, task-manager, windows software, windows task manager

Automatically Identify Running Processes

Martin — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:45:44 +0000

Assassin SE is a software program for that will scan, identify and rate all running processes on a computer system running Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista. The program will automatically scan all running processes during startup and display information about them in a table. Among the information provided are the name, process ID, company that developed it and a rating. The ratings range from safe to malicious and unknown. This makes it easy to identify problematic processes that require further investigation.

The program comes with a process modules viewer which will display the various modules a process is accessing on a computer system. The modules are rated with the same rating system and can give additional information about the process in question. Additional options include the ability to explore the system directory of a process and to perform a action on selected processes.

Actions can be to ignore (the default value), close or delete a process on the computer system. Closing will simply kill the process on the system while deleting will try and delete the file on the hard drive so that the file cannot be executed anymore.

Microsoft processes can be removed from the display to get a better overview of the non-system processes that are running on the system. The main problem of Assassin SE is the lack of ratings for several known applications. It was not able to identify True Crypt, Foxit Reader or Newsbin Pro which are common applications. It did however identify Firefox, uTorrent and Skype.

The software program can be helpful when checking the processes that are running on a computer system. It still requires some manual research after being left with unknown and potentially dangerous processes but it helps at reducing the amount of processes that have to be checked.

Tags: assassin le, freeware, identify processes, process explorer, process identifier, processes, security-software, window software

Bill2’s Process Manager

Martin — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:40:33 +0000

Oh not, not another process manager. I hear you, really. But Bill2’s Process Manager is something special, at least I think it is. It is optimized for multi core systems and compatible to Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista. The first thing that you should do after installing the application is to switch the language in the options from French to English. That is, unless you are French of course. The English translation is well done, there is however no help file available in English and the homepage of the developer is completely in French, too.

The process manager displays a list of processes currently running on the system. By default hidden processes are hidden but they can easily be revealed in the interface. A right-click provides several possibilities to interact with the process. It is possible to open the program directory, perform a Google search, to set the priority of the process, look at its properties and create a rule for it.

The rules are basically permanent changes to the process. Everyone can set a process priority in the task manager but those priorities are reset when the process is killed. With rules users can make those changes permanent as long as the process manager is running in the background.

Even more interesting is the fact that you can set process priorities for visible and minimized applications and set a cpu core affinity and that each instance of the process should be distributed to different cores. Another interesting aspect are the special actions. Those can be defined if a process is started, ended or idle. Actions include to launch another application, to restart the process, to kill it or to show a tooltip.

Tags: cpu, multi core, process manager, processes, software, Windows

End multiple programs at once

Martin — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 17:40:47 +0000

It sometimes is a good idea to close most processes and programs at once. Could be helpful if you want to run a very resource intensive program or an application asks you to close all programs open before continuing. This happens when you install some programs or run utilities like scandisk or defrag.

End it all is a program that lets you close all selected processes and programs except for several system processes and those that you have selected not to close. When you start End it all you get a view that resembles the Windows Task Manager. All open processes and applications are displayed. Icons define if a process will be closed or killed if you press the buttons that initiate that.

A right click on a process makes it possible to change the behavior to allow that it can be closed and / or killed when the button is pressed. Some processes are locked and can’t be changed at all to ensure that Windows continues to work properly.

The yellow icon means that End it all can close or kill the process, a red icon indicates a protected process that cannot be killed or closed. The icon with the X and the green border indicates processes that can be closed but not killed while a skull with a red border allows to kill the process but not to close it.

Talking about the difference between closing and killing. Closing gives the process a chance to close normally with special operations that are probably required during shutdown while killing a process stops it immediately which can lead to data loss.

Once everything is setup you can create a batch file that uses command line options to perform the required operation, i.e closing or killing all defined processes. The command START enditall /K would kill all processes. A full list of command line parameters can be obtained with the /? parameter.

Tags: process manager, processes, programs, software, Windows

Automatically Adjust the Process Priority

Martin — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 09:52:48 +0000

There is no automatic way to adjust the priority of a process in Windows using the default tools supplied by Microsoft. It is possible to adjust the current process priority but this setting is only valid for the current setting. Once the process gets killed, for example by closing the application or rebooting, it reverts the priority back to the default one.

But what if you want to do it automatically ? Say you happen to transcode videos every now and then and want that process to be below normal to continue working with your computer during the process. Or you would like to assign a higher process priority to a game that you like to play and that needs all the cpu cycles that it can get.

I can tell from personal experience that there are many applications where an automatic adjustment of the process priority would come in handy.

One tool that does the job is Prio, the Priority Saver. It adds this functionality to the Windows Task Manager. The most important feature that it introduces is the ability to save priorities for processes. To do that you simply select another process priority and check the Save Priority entry in the same menu as well.

Every time the process is started it will run with the selected priority from now on. The different colors are also added by Priority Saver. Green colors are assigned to processes with a digital signature while red colored ones do not have one. Hovering the mouse over a process will display a tooltip with additional information about it.

Priority Saver adds two new tabs to the Windows Task Manager as well which are called Services and TCP / IP.

The services tab displays all services currently installed on the system. This menu makes it possible to start and stop services and change their startup mode which makes the services.msc application redundant.

The TCP/IP tab displays all incoming and outgoing network connections of the computer. Tooltips aid in determining the process that is responsible for the connection.

Process Priority is free for personal use and runs fine in Windows XP. There is no information available about other supported operating systems.

Tags: processes, services, software, task-manager, tcp/ip, Windows, windows tips

Vssvc.exe

Martin — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 11:18:28 +0000

You might know that I regularly check all running processes as part of a cleanup process. It is also important from a security point of view. I spotted the file vssvc.exe today running on my computer and I was pretty sure that it was not running last time I checked. A quick check reveled that it was related to the Volume Shadow Copy Service in Windows XP.

This service is used by several backup applications to create backups of files that are currently in use, on the fly backups so to say. I knew that I did install two backup applications in the last week, Cobian Backup and MozyHome and I suspect that one of these was responsible for the change.

The real question however is if I need this service at all. It was using a little bit more than six Megabytes of RAM without any real benefit. I decided to stop the service and run a backup to see if it would go through and backup all the files selected. Since I’m not backing up any Windows system files I suspected that it would not make a difference.

I stopped the Volume Shadow Copy Service and the file vssvc.exe disappeared from the list of open processes. The backup completed without errors afterwards. Vssvc.exe has been set to disabled in Services.msc so that it does not get started accidentally if set to manually.

It would be different if you would backup system files regularly in Windows. Those files can’t be processed if they are in use at the moment of the backup if the Volume Shadow Copy Service is not running in the background.

Tags: backup, processes, service, vssvc.exe, Windows

Kill Tasks from the System Tray

Martin — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 15:44:42 +0000

Task Killer is a small but very useful Windows software which places a small icon in the system tray. Clicking that icon reveals all running processes, open windows and services in an easy to use interface. The processes give details about memory usage and name of course.

A click on any process kills that process after verification that you really want to do that. The main purpose of Task Killer is to be quickly able to terminate hung processes and windows without having to load the Windows task manager. I like the display of all running processes and their memory consumption which really aids in finding out which tasks use a lot of resources.

This was actually the way that I found that MediaAgent.exe was running on my system which lead to another article I posted earlier today. Users can change the default behavior of Task Killer in the options. It is possible for instance to disable the confirmation dialog or to create shortcuts to access functions even faster.

via Lifehacker

Tags: processes, taskmanager, windows tips

Process Lasso a Process Manager

Martin — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 08:30:00 +0000

I read a very interesting comment from Roman Sharp in my article that explained how to automatically terminate hung applications in Windows XP. He recommended the software Process Lasso and guess what, it was a great recommendation.

Process Lasso can probably be described as a application that manages processes. This is however not a task manager replacement but a software that can be configured to automatically react in certain situations.

Those situations include processes that slow down the system by using way more cpu cycles to bring other applications and the system to a standstill or processes that are run in a higher priority when detected.

So, to keep it short. Process Lasso can be either run as a service in Windows or as a background task consuming only a low amount of resources handling processes that either use to much cpu cycles or those that you want to prioritize.

It can also stop any process that you select automatically from that time on. Another useful feature is that it logs all processes that are running on the system making it easy to identify any processes that could be harmful.

Process Lasso Homepage

Tags: application stops working, block processes, hung application. cpu stops working, process blocker, process lasso, processes, windows software

Find out if a process is malicious

Martin — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 07:30:16 +0000

You see lots of processes when you start your taskmanager, svhost.exe, csrss.exe, winlogon.exe and many more. A user who never dealt with those executables before has a hard time figuring out which are safe and which could be malicious because normally you can’t say which program is using those files. A question like “Is svhost.exe a virus, is it safe ?” is normal and can be answered using the methods described below.

One way to find out additional information is to use a program like process explorer which displays more information about the processes currently running on your system. Process Explorer adds a description and company tab which reveals some information about the process.

You can configure process explorer to replace the task manager. Still, you might have information about the company and a description but sometimes there is no information about the process. What if there is no description but a company name like CMCEI. Would you be suspicious abot it ? I definately would be and now we come to websites that contain process lists of nearly every process on windows machines.

I would like to start with the list of the websites that are not spam, some websites give you some information but their main purposes is to sell a product. Two of the following sites have buttons to purchase products but they contain valuable information that make up for that. Don’t click on those buttons and you have nothing to fear.

All but one of the websites mentioned above have a site search – simply enter a filename that you don’t know about and they will display the information they have about it. It is a very good idea to cross-check the results before you take action.

If the information states that the file could be a virus, trojan or worm you should take appropriate measures. The first one would be to download a anti-virus program like Free AV (AVG Antivirus, Avast)and scan your system using that tool. Make sure the antivirus software is up to date. You might also want to take a look at my article about free online scan websites, most require Internet Explorer but some work in Firefox as well.

You should also download and run anti-spyware programs like Spybot Search and Destroy or Adaware. I’ve written another article “how to detect and remove spyware” which might be helpful as well.

To sum it up:

Download process explorer
Use the websites mentioned above to find out more about the process in question
Scan your system with antivirus software
Scan your system with anti-spyware software

Tags: process manager, processes, taskmanager

What is running on my system ?

Martin — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 18:05:19 +0000

What´s running 2.2. gives you an insight look into what is running on your system. It is completly free to use for non commercial usage and includes information about processes, services, modules, connections, drivers, startup and system. You can control everything with what´s running, e.g. start and stop services and processes.

Tags: processes, software, system check, what is running, Windows

What is that file ?

Martin — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 13:55:14 +0000

When I look at my taskmanager I sometimes see filenames that I don´t know. What is that file gives you the answer to the question. It´s solely based on user submissions, just like wikipedia for instance. Just enter a filename and the following information will be displayed: Name, purpose, description and if its safe or a malicious one. Great if you are not sure why a file is running on your system.

Similar sites that can help you as well are processlibrary.com and neuber.com. I recommend this procedure to every windows user. Fire up your taskmanager and search for every filename that you don´t know. Takes only a few minutes and gives you the possibility to get rid of some processes that are not useful or even malicious.

[tags]windows, file, filename, virus, trojan, unkown file[/tags]

Tags: file, file identification, processes

Process Patrol

Martin — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 20:14:52 +0000

Process Patrol allows you to manage the Windows processes on your computer. You can set stop lists for spyware, adware, and virus programs that will be automatically killed. Program files are renamed to prevent restarts. A built-in browser allows for quick Google searches on suspect programs. As an option, Process Patrol can notify you when new processes are started. Excellent for new spyware that is not yet registered with spyware removal tools, or simply shut down adware that cannot be uninstalled because of dependencies with other freeware.

Process Patrol helps you detect and stop spyware and adware processes with the following features:
*It helps you understand exactly what is running on your computer.
*It helps you build a list of spyware and adware programs.
*It stops these spyware and adware programs at the push of a button.
*It can monitor your system in a schedule that you setup, and automatically stop the spyware and adware processes that it finds.
*It optionally notifies you whenever a new process starts up that you haven’t yet flagged as either good or bad.

Freeware, Size 2.28 MB, download currently unavailable.

Tags: process patrol, processes, Windows

gHacks technology news » processes

Batch Kill Processes With Auto Kill Any Process

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Get to know Linux: ps command

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Vssvc.exe

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